Nick Henrich says Nebraska's defense allows him to play fast

With a new coaching staff at Nebraska, the Cornhuskers are going to be running new systems on offense and defense. On defense, Nebraska will run the 3-3-5, which has linebacker Nick Henrich excited about the 2023 season.

As Henrich explained, this system allows him to play free and with speed that he couldn’t before.

“Yeah, I love the freedom this defense gives you to go kind of run around and make plays,” Nick Henrich said. “And, yeah, I’d say this defense just really allows you to play fast and that’s going to be an advantage to get athletes on the field and all swarm to the ball.”

The 3-3-5 defense puts three defensive linemen, three linebackers, and five defensive backs on the field to maximize a defense’s athleticism. It allows defenses to hide blitzes and make offenses think that pressure is going to come from different places than it ultimately does. This is the defense that TCU beat Michigan with in the College Football Playoff after Wolverines quarterback J.J. McCarthy said, “If they stay in that 3-3-5, then it’s going to be a lot of smashing.”

Along with Nick Henrich, Quinton Newsome is going to be a key figure in Nebraska’s new-look defense. According to Newsome, the install has been going well this offseason.

“I would say everybody is very comfortable with the install, all the new things we have going on,” Newsome said. “Whether it’s the young guys who need to watch more film and get in more with their coaches, that’s not a problem for this team right now. A lot of people are wanting to watch film and learn the things that they don’t know that’s going on. So, I would say if somebody makes a mistake, the next day they’re going to have it fixed.”

How Nebraska’s new-look defense will match up against Big Ten offenses

On3’s JD PicKell broke down how Nebraska’s 3-3-5 should work against Big Ten offenses The Hard Count.

“So breaking this down, the Big Ten, like I said a ‘Bust-You-Up’ kind of conference historically. Michigan, you saw what they did last year. Iowa, historically, a run the football kind of team. Dealing with Wisconsin, Minnesota. Like, that’s the approach in the Big Ten. We’re going to line it up, try and move you against your will. So how will a 3-3-5 defense work? There’s a couple of main goals with Tony White’s defense, who’s the defensive coordinator for Nebraska under Matt Rhule, just so we’re all on the same page,” PicKell said.

“Goal No. 1, we’re going to attack the offense with speed. Remember, we took some big bodies off the field. We took one big body off the field, but guess what? We put an extra fast guy on the field. We put one more safety on the field for us, okay. A little more speed. You can be a little bit more nimble. The thought behind the 3-3-5, I think the perception is it’s kind of like a net. You’ve got more guys that can spread out across the defense with this 3-3-5. I would say in reality, the goal is for it to be more of an attacking defense. Think of it as more of a swarm than a net, does that make sense? Because you’ve got speed on the field. We may not be as big, on theory at least, on paper, but we can get to the ball a little bit quicker. We have a little bit more speed we can attack you with.”